Desire filled his eyes. “Which means we have about three hours until you have to leave. So let’s spend a little quality time together now.” He pulled her to her feet. “Race you to the bedroom.”
“I’ll win,” she taunted.
“Of course you will, because I want to watch your cute butt going up the stairs in front of me.” He lightly swatted her ass. “So get going!”
She hurried ahead of him, but with his longer legs he caught up to her at the stairs. Hands on her hips, he half chased, half pushed her to the bedroom, both of them laughing the whole way. He made everything so much fun! She’d always been scared of letting go and losing control, and playfulness had just made her feel nauseated. But Alec was so unlike anyone she’d ever known, he’d changed her. With him, she dared to let go, and he’d brought out the playful side she’d never known she had.
Just inside the bedroom door, with a twinkle in his eye that belied his stern expression, he grabbed her and dragged her toward the bed. She squelched the brief fear that surged inside her, covering it with laughter. Like Alec would ever hurt her.
He hurt himself, though. As usual, he slammed his shin into the protruding footboard of the bed. “Damn it!” he yelped. “We’re buying another bed.”
“No point doing that if we might move,” Kyla said practically.
“I meant when we move.” Smiling, he abruptly shoved her down to the bed and imprisoned her with his arms. “Unless you have other ideas.”
“When we move?” she repeated, shocked. She must have missed that decision. Sure, they’d said things like “if we move in together, we should…,” but it had never been anything definite. Even though she desperately wanted it to be. After her marriage, she hadn’t thought she’d ever want to live with any man again, but in her heart she wanted a life with Alec. And his words sounded pretty definite.
“I want you and the kids to live with me.” His arms abandoned the cage they’d formed and wrapped around her as he lay on his side next to her. His eyes filled with the deep feelings she knew he had for her. “I love you, I love them, and I love being with you. It just doesn’t feel right when I head home and leave you behind.” He sounded uncertain as he added, “I thought we’d already decided we would move in together, but maybe I was wrong.”
Kyla’s heart soared. For weeks she’d wondered where their relationship stood, and now he had told her. He wanted a life together as much as she did. She’d never dreamed she would find love this strong.
He studied her, waiting for her response, and she hastened to reassure him. “Maybe I’m just too literal. Maybe I expected you to come out and formally ask me.”
“Which I just did,” he pointed out.
“Yes.”
He blinked, confused. “Yes I just asked, or yes you’ll move in with me?”
“Yes, I’ll move in with you!” To show how much she meant it, she brought her mouth to his in a hard, tongue-filled kiss. “As soon as I talk the girls into it,” she added slowly when they parted.
“Good luck with that,” Alec joked. “They aren’t going to want to live with me.”
“Bullshit,” Kyla said firmly. “They adore you. They just won’t want to move again.”
“Yeah, well, I know how much their father moved you guys around,” Alec said. His face twisted like he’d smelled something horrible, the way it often did when he mentioned Kyla’s ex. Then he smiled. “We’ll have plenty of time to talk about it. It’s not like it’s going to happen tomorrow.” With a lascivious look in his eyes, he moved onto her. “Right now I think we have something to do before you go pick up those girls.”
“And what would that be?” Kyla said innocently.
“Where do you hide your toys?” He pressed against her so she couldn’t mistake his arousal.
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